Month: April 2017

During the Miss South Carolina pageant finals Saturday, Daja Dial was asked the hot button issue that’s on the tip of everyone’s tongue: whether Confederate memorabilia should be removed from the State House grounds.

“It’s a new South Carolina,” she said as the audience applauded. “We have made so much progress and it’s time to take it down. As Miss South Carolina I can lead this state into a new era. And that flag being taken down is representative of that. I’m in this moment right now for a reason. God has made this happen for a reason. I think it’s time for us to show what South Carolina is really like.”

And during the news conference held on Sunday, Dial, the new Miss South Carolina, stood behind her answer.

Madison Gesiotto, former beauty queen and current Ohio State University law student and contributor for the Washington Times, was threatened after writing a pro-life column highlighting the primary killer in black American: abortion. As Campus Reform reports, she was immediately met with threats and backlash which were largely ignored by administration; she did, however, receive a strong critique and lecture on how “offensive” her column was from those school officials. Read more

Ericka Dunlap first made history when she won Miss Florida 2003, followed by being crowned Miss America 2004. Now the CEO of her own diversity consulting firm, Dunlap discusses her pageant days, and shares her thoughts on the current state of diversity and inclusion in the workplace Read more

Kirsten Haglund’s first podcast for Faithwire kicks off with a refreshingly honest take on what her podcast is all about. The name itself comes with intrigue and a hat tip from the The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, which is a series of video shorts directed by John Koenig. Read more

I was 20 in 2006 when I was crowned Miss USA. Few people knew my name and my “Miss USA story.” Later that year, millions knew my name because of my real story, the story I didn’t want shared. I became famous as “Mess USA” when my boss — now the president of the United States — tossed me into rehab after I tested positive for cocaine. Rather than strip me of my crown or add to the negative press with a humiliation campaign, Donald Trump surprised me, and shocked the world, when he held a news conference and declared: “Tara is going to be given a second chance.” Read more